An Automated Test Battery for Advanced Aviator Assessment

We are aware that the full selection battery of the Aviation Selection Test Battery includes the mental, demographic and other tests, and that eventually it will be desirable to computerize the entire battery to operate at remote sites with the prospect of being "...updated to insert prototype questions and in 'real time' con- tinuously improve selection instrument." (p. Navy 91) It is our intention to be fully responsive to this solicitation and to create "...a new test battery (and new tests)..." by focussing on initially and in Phase I on ability related aptitudes in order to determine whether these computerized tests add new variance to the existing tests, as well they might. We would then wait until Phase II in order to include motivational and demographic variables for study. In Phase I we would therefore plan to combine empirical studies of candidate batteries, since we have three different groups of tests (N less than 24), which are currently available in computerized form. The available batteries include: 1) cognitive tests; 2) visual temporal information processing tests; and 3) psychomotor tests including video games. These are all written in "C." have been validated against simulated aviation and space shuttle landing tasks, and the batteries could each be fielded immediately so that plans for networking and field testing could be based on actual lessons learned from empirical evidence both for content in behavioral measures, and also with the difficulties to be encountered with attempting to test at remote sites.